Live and Let Die
by The Archer Black
Summary: Missing scene from Run, chapter 1 - where the Decepticon Justice Division evaluates Thundercracker's mental state. My stories are available exclusively on my official accounts on , dA, AO3, Tumblr.


**Live and Let Die**

" _When you were young_

 _And your heart was an open book_

 _You used to say, "Live and let live"_

 _(You know you did, you know you did, you know you did)_

 _But if this ever-changing world in which we're livin'_

 _Makes you give in and cry_

 _Say live and let die_

 _Live and let die, Live and let die, Live and let die_

 _What does it matter to ya, when you've got a job to do, you gotta do it well_

 _You gotta give the other fellow Hell"_ \- Paul McCartney and The Wings, _Live and Let Die._

 **Warning:** Mentions of violence and Decepticon Justice Division.

Timing: Post season 2 finale, in my very own Beauty of the Beast Prime timeline.

Rating: T to M.

Pairings: none.

Disclaimer: Transformers Prime © Hasbro. Story's plot and OC's © me. There may be some OC's that aren't mine – they belong to their respective creators.

oOo

Thundercracker 1) sat calmly behind a table. Despite not following his younger brother's steps and attending to Iaconian Academy of Science and Technology, he studied ballistics and even managed to reach engineer degree. And he was good in his field.

The mech looked normal to Tarn, but then again, most nut cases looked normal especially when on drugs. It only started when they opened their mouths. Thundercracker was heavier than Starscream and he always, absolutely always looked healthy and strong. And despite being the calmest of his entire Trine, he was deadly if he wanted to and he could hold his ground against Tarn if he chose to fight. But no matter how strong and fast he was, he could not fight entire D.J.D.

"You have no reasons to be nervous, Thundercracker; we just need to evaluate your state." Tarn spoke in his most calming voice and allowed it to tune in on Thundercracker's Spark. "If you're honest, you are safe. You only need to fear if you're trying to avoid participation in The Cause."

"I only agreed to talk to you to get you out of my helm 2)." Thundercracker replied in tired voice. Lately, he was tired all the time. "I want to be back to being bored. I like being bored. It is much better than not being bored. It is certainly better than being shot at."

"Let us talk about being shot at, shall we?" Tarn smiled behind his mask. His optics gleamed.

"We shall not." Thundercracker growled not caring what the D.J.D's leader wanted to say.

"But I think we will." Tarn insisted. "You see Vos, here, is named after the Torus State of Vos, but he is not a flyer... well, not any more at least. But he is a perfect exhibit for our conversation."

"This conversation, Tarn, you can sit on it and rotate. " 3) The shell shocked seeker tried to break the incoming speech.

"Because he turns into a small battle station, or to be more exact, an anti-aircraft machine gun station 4), complete with the machine gun obviously." Tarn continued ignoring Thundercracker's attempt at dishearten Tarn from continuing the 'evaluation'.

"And I am supposed to be, what, scared?" Thundercracker leaned back and began to observe the ceiling. "I've seen more than enough to not be impressed. Not with your petty attempts at playing a 'bad cop' anyway."

Tarn blinked few times. This certainly wasn't how he planned this to roll. He didn't like when his victims didn't behave as he anticipated. True, Thundercracker wasn't his victim, at least not yet, but Tarn felt deep in his Spark that this entire situation was getting out of his servos.

"You may act indifferent and ignore me all you want." Tarn said in calm voice that normally would soothe anyone into state of fuzziness. "It won't help you though. And since you don't seem to be in any mood to talk to me. Perhaps you will be more willing to talk to my friend?"

Tarn took one long step back and gently encircled Vos with his massive arm giving him a gentle push forward. The smaller and slimmer mech politely made couple of steps forward while Tesarus remained behind him.

"Vos, my friend, into your servos I command this Spark." Tarn stepped back with the rest of the group. "Perhaps he will listen to you."

Thundercracker gave Vos lifted opticbrow while the rest of the D.J.D. stood silently in the background, ready to intervene if anything would go out of servo. After all Thundercracker was heavier than Vos and despite the fact that each and every Decepticon Justice Division member was trained by Megatron himself, some things could not be changed: size difference was one of them.

"Oy, I think not." Thundercracker focused his stare on the smaller but deadly mech in front of him both estimating the level threat of Vos and challenging the mech in the same time.

Vos cocked his head and took another step closer to Thundercracker. He took few moments to choose how to approach this particular victim.

"Scis quid a tormento iaculat quaedam species damni faciat tibi? 5) "Vos asked deciding to take the most direct approach possible. "Have vos umquam vidisse inmissam a me?" 5)

Thundercracker's optics widened upon hearing what the other mech said. He wasn't very fluent in Primal Vernacular but he grasped enough to understand what Vos said. And that seemed to be enough for the Seeker to start losing his patience.

"All right Vos, stop bragging about that large barrel of yours!" Tesarus flashed large and obnoxious grin. "Some of us aren't that fond of you molesting people with it!"

Now that last comment sent Thundercracker to an abrupt halt, his overly-graphic imagination kicked in and the mech's optics grew even larger than before while his jaw dropped. At this moment the family resemblance became more than evident: Thundercracker now looked like larger, bulkier and more indignant version of Starscream.

The poor mech seemed like he would try to scrub his brain module with scouring pad.

"Vos non vidistis, molestiam tamen Tesarus!"5) Vos exclaimed and wriggled his optic brows in suggestive manner.

"Well, then, show us!" Tesarus bellowed happily.

"Stop Tesarus or else he actually may try." Helex tried to cool the atmosphere down. Normally he would be the first to bully a victim, but this was not usual situation and Thundercracker was not some random coward, deserter or defector. This was delicate situation due to the fact that, at least officially, TC was locked in this clinic as PTSD victim which automatically classified him as a 'loon', at least as long as Helex was concerned.

For Helex all 'loons' were not to be trusted, and certainly could not be expected to behave like normal (meaning cowardly victims) people. Especially when confronted with the D.J.D.

"Awww, what are you afraid of?" Tesarus teased but Helex paid him no mind. Instead he was focused on Vos and his idea of how to deal with Thundercracker.

Vos raised his servos to his mask and paused. He knew that Thundercracker could more or less understand him, so he decided to give his performance a small intro.

"Nunc omnes iocos noxium. Si ergo petitionem unam deprecor mihi placet."5) The mech started while still holding his servos on the sides of his mask. "Posset te geris..." Vos pushed four locks on his mask and gently took it off revealing his face.6) Then he pressed some hidden button and the mask clicked silently. He held it for a second before abruptly turn it to Thundercracker and complete is question in the same moment. "...faciem meam?"5)

Thundercracker glared at the inside of Vos' mask for a second. There were drills of various sizes there, they were moving too. He wasn't sure but he thought he saw a spike or two there too, and few tiny hooks. He blinked and then instantly threw the table in a way that would make Prowl jealous 7). After that all went quickly.

Vos was hit by the table and that caused him vanish from TC's line of vision, but Helex was not so lucky. He tried to help Vos and paid a price for being such a good team mate as Thundercracker punched him in the face. Helex was larger than Thundercracker, but he was taken by surprise and TC was furious. Helex fell back and landed on Kaon, who startled by a large frame falling on him released small electric charge shocking Helex enough to cause the large mech to howl.

"Oh bot!" Tesarus pulled a face seeing that the large, pi$$ed Seeker was heading in his direction.

"I'm calling for medics with tranquilizers." Tarn decided and headed for the door. He saw enough to deem Thundercracker completely unfit for active duty and therefore excused from stay in Clinic. His job here was done.

"I'm going with you!" Tesarus volunteered. He suddenly found that this place was not fit for him. Not when it had a violent Seeker inside.

Tesarus turned and followed Tarn but he was never allowed to make more than few tiny steps as Thundercracker focused his post-traumatic stressed attention on him.

"Where do you think you're going Tesarus?" He growled. "I'll show you molestation with gun barrel!"

Hearing that made Tesarus wish that he stayed silent before, but it was too late to run. The only way out of this room was through Tarn who was now opening the door in way to calm manner, at least for Tesarus' taste.

Thundercracker never minding Tarn though, smirked and activated his cannon, took aim and fired... the bolt hit Tesarus straight in the aft sending him forward... to Tarn and sending both mechs sprawled on the corridor floor.

"Much better."8) Thundercracker said and sat calmly on his chair that somehow remained untouched.

A moment later Lobe and First Aid entered the room and saw Thundercracker sitting on his chair twirling his thumbs and Helex clumsily peeling Kaon from the floor. Vos was freed from the table by then and was now trying to hunt down his face mask that got lost in the whole mess.

Lobe sighed tiredly and told First Aid to help Thundercracker to his room and give him something for his poor nerves. He knew it would end in a mess like this. It couldn't be any other way, not with the D.J.D. anyway.

"Habeo!" 5) Lobe's thoughts and helmache were interrupted by Vos who managed to find his face mask, dust it off and was now happily putting it back on.

Lobe vented with all the patience that he had left and commed Rossum.

oOo

"And if I will never see you again, it will still be too soon!" Lobe pushed Kaon out of the clinic. "And I swear, if he... "At this moment he pointed at Vos who despite having a face mask looked sheepish. "... will ever make any kind of trick with his facemask ever again while on this planet, I will rewire his brain module into that of a glitch mouse!"

"Well, I can only congratulate you on making Lobe to go postal." Rossum looked rather unimpressed, but he was the one who constructed Vos' face mask in the first place. "And from now on you are banned from this clinic. I will make sure that Megatron knows about it and sanctions it. And tell Tesarus to put some cool aid on it."

After that the door shut close.

TBC

Thank you for your attention and I hope you liked it (reviews are welcomed as always). Next story will feature Arcee and Shockwave (on a date).

I've read the on-going issue featuring the D.J.D. and I loved how calm they showed the D.J.D. to be while not "in the field" (yay for Nickel, she may not be the D.J.D. member, but she is part of Peaceful Tyranny crew member and therefore she is awesome, plus good to have someone to be able to manage the boys). But one thing I loathed in that issue – how hey softened Tarn (and the rest of the D.J.D. by extension). They made him too soft, he's supposed to be killing people with culture and violence (that's a quote from TF wikipedia), not close his eyes not to watch. I liked that he was not showed as mindless killing machine but they just went too far with it. So, in this place I wish to vow: I will never soften Tarn and his boys into bunch of cry-babies with penchant for violence! They may be muffs on occasions, they may be awkward sometimes and they're even bound to end up in "Hangover" like scenarios every now and then (because they're five legally adult males – or what passes as a male on Cybertron – on a mission that includes travelling a lot), but they are living nightmare of every deserter, defector and traitor, and that's what they will remain for ever!

1) It happens in Prologue of "Run", it is the missing scene between when the D.J.D. meets TC and when they're getting kicked out form the clinic. It is not very long, but it is just one scene and... well, Thundercracker is much more patient than any of his brothers or even both of them combined, but not when he's shell shocked and pestered by the Decepticon Justice Division. Can't blame him.

2) "Out of my hair" if he was a human.

3) This is a quote actually, and it comes from "Down Periscope" (at least that's where I heard it the first time) and is extremely rude thing to say, but it is perfect to show Thundercracker's attitude and (lack of) enthusiasm.

4) At first I never planned to specify just what kind of battle station Vos turns into, but then I thought that a character named after the City-state of Vos (and perhaps a Vosian himself), a place of origin of the Seekers – most famous (and most notorious in certain cases) type of flyers on Cybertron; who would turn into an anti-aircraft gun station would be an ideal "joke". And then there's the fact that Thundercracker is a Vosian, a Seeker (flyer) and Vos is an anti-aircraft gun station is a perfect insult.

5) "Do you know what damage a shot from my cannon would cause to you?", "Have you ever seen someone shot by me?", "You haven't seen molestation yet, Tesarus!", "Now, let us put all the jokes aside. I have a favour to ask if you don't mind.", "Could you... wear my face?" and "Got it!" - at least that's what Google tells me.

6) In my version Vos has a face; it is normal face, because I have never seen a mech or a femme in Prime that would not have a face of some sort (instead of just an empty space to insert a mask – like IDW's G1 Vos). Soundwave has a face – in Triage Megatron clearly told Knockout to fix Soundwave's visor, which indicates that there's something behind it (I assume it is a face complete with optics and a mouth to tell the Autobots that they're inferior). Vehicons have faces (yes, sadly these lifeless mask are their faces, mind you irremovable faces), in Thirst we can even see that they have dentas (and when they turn into Terrocons they also have these cute little fangs Squee!). And even Shockwave has a face (or had a face before Empurata, I do not know if it is canon for Align Continuity, but I assume it may be) which consists of one large, red, glaring optic; there's a chance that there is some sort of oral opening somewhere there as well since he speaks and has to re-fuel somehow (even Bumblebee had small oral opening to emit all these cute beeps and bleeps).

7) You know, the Autobot that goes by the name Prowl. In IDW's G1 he is known to throw tables and it was even shown in MTMTE.

8) This scene was inspired by a scene known as "Starscream heckles Megatron", it is from TF Animated. It's but a short special yet it is brilliant. I especially love Megatron in this one.


End file.
